This section may be cited as the ‘George E. Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act’.

“(b)Findings.—The Congress makes the following findings:

“(1)

Near-Earth objects pose a serious and credible threat to humankind, as many scientists believe that a major asteroid or comet was responsible for the mass extinction of the majority of the Earth’s species, including the dinosaurs, nearly 65,000,000 years ago.

“(2)

Similar objects have struck the Earth or passed through the Earth’s atmosphere several times in the Earth’s history and pose a similar threat in the future.

“(3)

Several such near-Earth objects have only been discovered within days of the objects’ closest approach to Earth, and recent discoveries of such large objects indicate that many large near-Earth objects remain undiscovered.

“(4)

The efforts taken to date by NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration] for detecting and characterizing the hazards of near-Earth objects are not sufficient to fully determine the threat posed by such objects to cause widespread destruction and loss of life.

“(c)Definitions.—

For purposes of this section the term ‘near-Earth object’ means an asteroid or comet with a perihelion distance of less than 1.3 Astronomical Units from the Sun.

“(d)Near-Earth Object Survey.—

“(1)Survey program.—

The Administrator [of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration] shall plan, develop, and implement a Near-Earth Object Survey program to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of near-Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter in order to assess the threat of such near-Earth objects to the Earth. It shall be the goal of the Survey program to achieve 90 percent completion of its near-Earth object catalogue (based on statistically predicted populations of near-Earth objects) within 15 years after the date of enactment of this Act [Dec. 30, 2005].

“(3)Fifth-year report.—The Administrator shall transmit to the Congress, not later than February 28 of the fifth year after the date of enactment of this Act, a report that provides the following:

“(A)

A summary of all activities taken pursuant to paragraph (1) since the date of enactment of this Act.

“(B)

A summary of expenditures for all activities pursuant to paragraph (1) since the date of enactment of this Act.

“(4)Initial report.—The Administrator shall transmit to Congress not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act an initial report that provides the following:

“(A)

An analysis of possible alternatives that NASA may employ to carry out the Survey program, including ground-based and space-based alternatives with technical descriptions.

“(B)

A recommended option and proposed budget to carry out the Survey program pursuant to the recommended option.

“(C)

Analysis of possible alternatives that NASA could employ to divert an object on a likely collision course with Earth.

“(e)Program Report.—The Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives, not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 [Mar. 21, 2017], an initial report that provides—

“(1)

recommendations for carrying out the Survey program and an associated proposed budget;

“(2)

an analysis of possible options that the Administration could employ to divert an object on a likely collision course with Earth; and

“(3)

a description of the status of efforts to coordinate and cooperate with other countries to discover hazardous asteroids and comets, plan a mitigation strategy, and implement that strategy in the event of the discovery of an object on a likely collision course with Earth.

“(f)Annual Reports.—After the initial report under subsection (e), the Administrator shall annually transmit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives a report that includes—

“(1)

a summary of all activities carried out under subsection (d) since the date of enactment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 [Mar. 21, 2017], including the progress toward achieving 90 percent completion of the survey described in subsection (d); and

“(2)

a summary of expenditures for all activities carried out under subsection (d) since the date of enactment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017.

“(g)Assessment.—The Administrator, in collaboration with other relevant Federal agencies, shall carry out a technical and scientific assessment of the capabilities and resources—

“(1)

to accelerate the survey described in subsection (d); and

“(2)

to expand the Administration’s Near-Earth Object Program to include the detection, tracking, cataloguing, and characterization of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects less than 140 meters in diameter.

“(h)Transmittal.—

Not later than 270 days after the date of enactment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 [Mar. 21, 2017], the Administrator shall transmit the results of the assessment under subsection (g) to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives.”

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